Comparing Pericles And Lincoln's Great Speeches

Pericles and Lincoln’s Great Speeches

Two very famous speeches have impacted the world with their diction and purpose. Pericles’ “Funeral Oration” and also Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” were both spoken at a public service for those who had been killed in the war. For Pericles this speech occurred in 431 BCE at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War. Later in time Abraham Lincoln spoke in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania about four months after the Battle of Gettysburg. While each speech commemorated those who had died in the war, they also inspired the remaining people to continue fighting and finish the war. To inspire the people, Pericles and Lincoln used similar rhetorical devices and different persuasive techniques.

Pericles and Lincoln’s speeches both used repetition to create a lasting effect on their audience. In both speeches, the

While Pericles uses an anecdote to start off his speech, Lincoln tends to use cause and effect throughout his speech. In the Funeral Oration, the text says, “I will speak first of our ancestors, for it is right and seemly that now, when we are lamenting the dead, a tribute should be paid to their memory,” (Pericles). Then the Pericles begins to tell of the past and how their city came to be. He uses this to remind the audience of their great past and also to remind them of a possibility of a great future with the victory of the war. Lincoln tends to use cause and effect the whole time during his speech. The Gettysburg Address says, “- that we were highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,” (Lincoln). They both use different persuasive techniques for the same outcome of looking toward a better